Mercedes-Benz introduced the 30 years corrosion guarantee, but this does not mean that our A class is immune for corrosion problems.
If your car has been serviced even once at a unauthorized garage, and the car is over 4 years old, you're probably out of guarantee, and this means that you have to repair corrosion problems at your charge.
My car has already been treated against corrosion in Germany as 6 years old, free-of-charge according to the guarantee, but I'm so sorry to see that they did a really bad job.
After a couple of years, the corrosion was back again, and moreover in different parts - also the fuel tank, kindly replaced by my local MB dealer. Mycar is now 10 years old.
In order to avoid this sad corrosion troubles please check the most sensitive parts:
- Front doors upper hinges.
This is a W168 known weakness. These alluminium parts corrode from inside, causing the doors to move some millimeters upwards. The hinges must be replaced (hinges must be painted, if bought directly from MB).
- Welding behind the fuel filler flap.
The welding is exposed to corrosion because of the rain/water that remains inside on the horizontal surface.
Look at the picture:
- Door bendings/weldings, below corners.
These weldings are very sensitive to water. Look at the picture for the front door:
and back door:
- Weldings in the substructure, especially behind the side sills.
It's a good idea to inspect the condition of all the weldings - it might be a sad surprise. My MB dealer has never inspected those parts, and I'm sure it's the customer duty to pay attention to the problem.
Look at these pictures:
The last picture shows the condition before I started to repair the rust:
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